A few months ago there was a detailed article in the Butler Eagle, along with a drawing, of what improvements the county Parks and Recreation Department was proposing for Alameda Park. The new pool area looked like some resort. Recently there was another article about improvements at the Alameda pool carrying a cost of $900,000. Yes, there’s going to be a grant applied for the sum of $400,000, but where do people think the other $500,000 will come from? That money will come from my pocket and from the pockets of other county residents. What amuses me about the whole project is that Commissioner Jim Eckstein sits at all the commissioners meetings nit-picking nickels and dimes over how much hotels are costing for county employees to attend different conferences. He thinks the employees should be staying in cheaper hotels. Then he had the nerve to say he thought the Alameda work was a great idea and “would benefit people in all municipalities.” That’s $900,000 or, with the grant, $500,000, to benefit whom? I would imagine the answer is the residents of Butler Township and the city of Butler. Evans City and other small towns work hard to keep their parks going. Oh, the county throws them out a little “treat” every once in awhile to say the county helped them, but the treat isn’t really close to $900,000. The commissioners are going to spend this outrageous amount of money for a pool that’s open three and a half months out of the year. With 8,500 members? That unbelievable. We’ve cut spending in so many more important areas, but we have this amount of money to spend on a pool to benefit 8,500 people. I’m asking the county commissioners to rethink this project.And, if Eckstein is so strong in his feelings to do his “due diligence,” I would hope he would change his mind on how wonderful he thinks this project would be.